Abstract

The series of studies reported in this book so far have presented an unequivocal account of domestic violence and the devastating impact it can have on the lives of females, and individuals involved in LGBT relationships. Nonetheless, what is missing from the discourse so far is an understanding of the male experience. To help fill this void the results of three exemplar studies detailed in the next three chapters are based on a phenomenological research study conducted at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Western Australia. The project examined what impact child maltreatment had on eight male participants‘ childhood lives as well as their adult relationships. This first chapter opens with a brief synopsis of the growing recognition that domestic violence (including witnessing violence) is a form of maltreatment and closes with a detailed account of the qualitative methodology employed in the study. The second chapter details the male participants‘ recollected memories of their childhood experiences of maltreatment. The third chapter reveals the psychosocial damage that the popular belief that an abused child will grow up to become an abusive adult had on the lives of the participants. The fourth and final chapter in this series details how the participants tried to move on from their damaged lives by engaging in various resilience building intervention programs. The chapter closes with a discussion of the implications that child maltreatment experiences can have not only on the lives of males affected by child abuse, but also on the wider adult male populace.